This study aimed to investigate differences in parental attitudes toward music and support for music education between typically developing children and autistic children with mild or borderline intellectual disability (ID) in Hong Kong. While research highlights the developmental benefits of music for autistic children with ID, few studies explore formal music training in this population, particularly within the context of cultural influences. The study included 148 participants, consisting of 84 parents of typically developing children and 64 parents of autistic children with ID. A questionnaire was used to assess parental attitudes toward music and their decisions regarding formal music training enrollment for their children. Covariates such as family income, child executive function, and parental expectations were analyzed to identify potential predictors. Parents of autistic children with ID held more positive attitudes toward music compared to parents of typically developing children when controlling for covariates. However, only 14.1% of autistic children with ID were enrolled in formal music training, in contrast to 40.4% of typically developing children. Family income and child executive function emerged as significant barriers to enrollment decisions. The findings highlight a disparity between positive parental attitudes toward music and pursuit of music education among autistic children with ID, highlighting systemic and financial barriers. Accessible music programs, adjustments in parental expectations, and inclusive policies may bridge the gap between parental attitudes and actual support. These insights call for targeted interventions to ensure that autistic children with ID can access the developmental benefits of music education. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

This study examines the adequacy of a general proficiency in music listening for describing how examinees responded to exam questions on various music genres based on an empirical investigation of a public music listening examination. In the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), Music consists of three mandatory components: listening, performing, and creating. Notably, the listening component is evaluated through a written examination, allowing for objective scoring. A candidate's performance on this exam has been summarized as a single score, a method that is effective for evaluation purposes, while the underlying conceptualization may oversimplify the depth of knowledge required for assessment. Consequently, we conducted a reevaluation of the HKDSE Music listening test, employing the Rasch testlet model to explore potential multidimensional structures. Our findings highlighted distinctive attributes in questions related to Cantonese opera, setting them apart from others. We discuss the implications of these findings for music assessment. Copyright © 2024 SAGE Publications Ltd.

The use of post-isms has become increasingly prominent in academic discourse because it offers new perspectives for gaining insight into current developments in human society and the historical dimension of culture. In the Hong Kong educational context, the concept of post-isms has permeated the current music curriculum. The curriculum guide alludes to posthumanist primary interests, was created in the postcolonial state after the return of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, and is associated with poststructural psychoanalysis that values the subjectivity of listeners. This article investigates the entanglement of the Hong Kong music curriculum and the post-isms from the perspectives of posthumanism, postcolonialism, and poststructural psychoanalysis. It is found that the curriculum guide demonstrates a commitment to ecology/human relations through both cross-species communication and understanding, as well as pro-nature humanism. It entangles with the concept of hybridity in postcolonialism and functions as a strategy of disavowal of the colonial legacy and the cultivation of the original national identity. The guide also perceives music as an agency that produces subjectivity by positioning the listener as subject. By investigating the Hong Kong music curriculum through the three lenses, implications for music curriculum development were drawn. It is urged that only when a music curriculum takes into account the multidimensionality of music can it reveal the greatest potential of music. Copyright © 2025 Wiley.

Liberal arts education in Chinese higher education can be traced back to the liberal arts tradition that existed in China's former Christian universities prior to the 1950s. The mission and goal of liberal arts education in Chinese contexts focuses on cultivating whole persons to serve their societies. Using data from documents and interviews, the study examines the liberal arts tradition for developing whole persons with a spirit of service in China's former Christian universities. It also explores to what extent the legacy has been carried on to the development of liberal arts education in contemporary universities in Chinese societies (Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). The study provides insight into how some elements of whole person development from faith-based education could contribute to today's higher education reform in terms of the goals of global citizen cultivation. Copyright © 2024 Springer.

This study aimed at exploring kindergarten teachers’ perceptions and usage of digital devices in their classrooms. A multiple case study (n = 4) was conducted to investigate how in-service experienced (n = 22) and novice (n = 24) kindergarten teachers interpreted the functional significance of digital devices, including the needs and challenges faced when applying digital devices in visual arts activities in their classrooms. A non-randomised convenience sampling strategy was used to recruit four local kindergartens in Hong Kong, whose teachers were invited to participate in focus group interviews. In total, 540 min of interview data were collected. We examined the in-service teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of digital devices in terms of (1) transparency, (2) challenge and (3) accessibility. Based on the teachers’ responses in the interviews, the findings indicated issues related to the use of digital devices in terms of these three areas here. The informants shared how their understandings of film language limited their intentions and usage patterns (including frequency of use) with respect to digital videos. Nevertheless, they admitted that digital videos were important tools for facilitating children’s learning and communication with their parents. This study reflects the current situation of technology education in Hong Kong, including how teacher educators perceive the usage and roles of digital videos in early arts education. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This qualitative study investigates how two dance teachers (one in Toronto and the other in Hong Kong) shifted issues of pedagogy and autonomy in virtual dance classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reveals that participants quickly adapt to new environments and utilize available technologies in both teaching and learning. The study shares insights and practical strategies for dance educators to adapt and apply in regular dance classes even after the pandemic. In addition to teachers' perspectives on virtual teaching, selected student works highlight how the shift of autonomy fosters creativity and boosts confidence. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Prior research on classroom interaction has investigated how the teacher's feedback turn following students' responses can be used to transform students' turns into academic expressions during whole class discussions. Nevertheless, more empirical studies are needed to explore how teachers' translanguaging practices can play a role in shaping students' contributions into pedagogical opportunities for introducing academic terminologies in English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classrooms. Adopting translanguaging as an analytical perspective, this study explores how an EMI history teacher deploys available linguistic and multimodal resources to connect students' responses with academic concepts and terminologies. The study draws its data from a larger linguistic ethnographic project that took place in an EMI secondary history classroom in Hong Kong. The classroom interaction data is examined using Multimodal Conversation Analysis, and this analysis is further triangulated with video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This paper argues that the EMI teacher's translanguaging practices facilitate the process of transforming student contributions into academic terminology and concepts. The process of deploying translanguaging for transforming student contributions highlights translanguaging as an important component of the teacher's classroom interactional competence for constructing new configurations of language practices and achieving specific pedagogical purposes. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This study explores how Hong Kong’s latest Chinese history curriculum hybridizes Romantic and Enlightened approaches and how that hybridization converges with/diverges from mainland China’s, given the two societies’ increased integration in the People’s Republic of China. Data were drawn from Hong Kong’s and mainland China’s latest junior-secondary Chinese history curricula policies and textbooks and Hong Kong’s earlier curriculum. Despite approaching mainland China’s Chinese history in curriculum structure and promoting China as a unified multi-ethnic nation, Hong Kong’s latest history curriculum retains its earlier orientation towards the Communist Party of China and the Enlightened approach. Hong Kong’s junior-secondary Chinese history curricula try to balance Romantic and Enlightened approaches, while mainland China’s symbolically promotes and selectively uses the latter to serve the former. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future study are provided. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Performing arts education has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis around the world since early 2020. Educators had to adapt the classes with remote learning when face-to-face instruction had been suspended during the pandemic. Although frustrations and confusion continued to abound with the implementation of new pedagogies, online teaching, and learning spurred new practices, innovative ideas, and breakthroughs. Some performing arts educators took this opportunity to explore new skills and strategies and provided performing arts students with more impactful learning experiences. Presently, with the COVID-19 pandemic gradually showing a sign of easing, many Hong Kong schools have returned to in-person instruction. Meanwhile, the impactful learning feedback from students triggered calls for redesigning the pedagogy of performing arts education. This study placed the impact of COVID-19 on performing arts education into context and drilled down into the delivery of performing arts education in the post-pandemic era. This study reviewed teaching and learning experiences of performing arts education, with the following three research questions addressed: (a) What is the correlation between performing arts students' academic traits and their proficiency in utilizing technology during the COVID-19 pandemic? (b) What are the influential factors impacting the hybrid learning experience and outcomes of performing arts students during the COVID-19 pandemic? (c) What are the anticipated expectations of performing arts students regarding future models of arts education? Furthermore, practical solutions and insights for performing arts educational delivery in the post-pandemic era are provided in this study. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

A growing number of studies have explored the ways how teachers contingently respond to students' unexpected responses or a lack of student responses in second language classrooms. From a sociocultural perspective, teacher contingency involves a departure from the lesson plan in local response to the unexpected or unforeseeable actions in the classroom interactions (van Lier, 2001). This study adopts translanguaging as an analytical perspective in order to examine how a teacher employs various resources to contingently respond to students' initiatives and reformulate his utterances in order to prompt student participation. The data are based on a larger linguistic ethnographic project in a Hong Kong English-Medium-Instruction secondary history classroom. This paper reconceptualizes the notion of teacher contingency and argues that the process of how the teacher contingently responds to the unexpected outcomes that arise in real-time interactions is a process of translanguaging. Such a process requires the teacher in orchestrating the available linguistic and multimodal resources to construct pedagogical actions on the spot, instead of being planned in advance. Copyright ©2024 Oxford University Press.